


Heavy Legacy

by Arwyn



Category: due South
Genre: Character Study, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Domestic Violence, F/M, never name a child after Stanley Kowalski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 03:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4043701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwyn/pseuds/Arwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>He clung to that sometimes. He never punched her.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heavy Legacy

Ray never punched Stella.

He clung to that sometimes. He never punched her.

The walls, yeah. (Ray's really good at drywall repair now -- can lay down a patch as smooth as a brand new slugger.) Once the window, and he hates glass with a passion now, the hours at the ER getting the slivers out, hand hot with the numbing shots, face hot with the rage and shame of it. But not Stella.

In the end, in their Last Fight -- there were plenty of words exchanged after that, plenty of fucks both spoken and acted out, but this was the one that shattered it all, that he knew shattered it, where finally she knew he knew even if he never would admit it -- she told him she wished he had, wished he would. Maybe they could have moved on, then, maybe he could've learned it could be survived. But he didn't, not once, and the fear of it, the way he turned in on himself, scratched and snapped and tore at the part of him he feared would cross the line someday -- that was what did him in, she said. What did them in.

"I can't live with you like this, Ray. You can't love me when you're so full of hate for yourself, for this idea that you'll wind up like your namesake, but  _you're not him_. I wish you'd just do it. So you'd see. So you'd know."

He didn't punch anything that night.

Maybe that's why it was the Last Fight.


End file.
